posted on January 10, 2003 05:25:40 PM new
If I were a "newbie" buyer to ebay, I would not be a returning customer. Even with 1000+++ transactions as a seller & buyer, I am
getting more and more frustrated with the buying process. Do any of you buy here? I am primarily a seller, but have bought more than my share here
also. I bought something last week, an import cd, intending to give it as a gift this weekend. BEFORE I placed any bid, I emailed the seller,
(a NEWBIE with feedback of only 1 positive). "OK", I think..."I was a newbie at one time, let's see how he handles my questions
before I bid". I ask him: If I win the item, and pay that night with Paypal, can he ship the next day USPS PRIORITY ( 2-3 day
delivery) with insurance. "No Problem" he says. Ok, I bid, I win, I paid...now nothing. He has not answered any emails this week, nor has he forwarded a promised "tracking number"...and to top
if off, he is no longer registered! BIG SURPRISE! Also, his "pay to" information is completely different than the ebay contact
information which I requested and received this morning. The name and address are someone else's. This guy had about 20
auctions listed with winners last week, some paid alot of money for their items. I WOULD LIKE TO REPORT THIS TO EBAY. But after spending over 20 minutes just trying to find where to report it TO, it
will not let me proceed. I can't get past the "I am a buyer" window. It says "error 404". No matter how I try to get into "safety harbor" or "rules and safety" or whatever the #!@!* it's
called...nothing! Talk about frustrating...
I hear on these boards how ebay is trying to lure more sellers...because that is where the real money is with fees,
etc. But there is REALLY trouble ahead if this is the future. Without BUYERS.. return BUYERS there will be NO sellers...HELLO? EBAY? ARE
YOU LISTENING? I've had other bad experiences with buying in my 4 1/2 years here... but this was the worst. I doubt I will BUY here again... which is sad. I am usually on the
defense for ebay...but they REALLY need an overhaul in certain areas... SERIOUSLY. What do you think of ebay requiring a deposit before you can set up a sellers account? and....HOW CAN I REPORT THIS FRAUD??? Do ya think they care about it?
Thanks for letting me %^&#(@! VEEEEEEENT!!!!!!!
Choose Transaction problem, I am a buyer, then select an option from #3.
I'm having the same problem, with a new seller. Total 12 feedback (mostly from purchases)
I won 2 items, last week and they will not respond to requests as to where to make payment. I contacted 3 other bidders who won auction items from him & all are haveing the same problem.
posted on January 10, 2003 06:35:58 PM new
Thanks Bear. I can get as far as " I have paid for but not received the item", then when I hit continue...that's when the error pops up. I will try again tomorrow am.
posted on January 10, 2003 07:07:35 PM new
If you are running Pop-Up Stopper you can try
turning it off while you do that. I've had
the same type problems on eBay solved by
doing that.
Also, no matter the rating, I always ask at
least one question of the seller. If they
don't answer, or I don't like the answer, I
don't bid. I know you said that they did
answer, and agree to what you asked, I just
think it is a good idea. Good luck!
---
"Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not
know, so cannot say". -- Zathras (Babylon 5)
I used to be just a buyer on ebay over 300 positive feedbacks for high end Items.
Then just before Christmas 2000 got taken 3 times from sellers all with 100 postive feedbacks or more for about $3000.00. I spent over a week to get someones attention at ebay went through link after link that didn't work only to finally get through with form mail back that they would contact me. Two weeks later just another form mailing with buyer beware garbage and disclaimer etc. Never ever got a real person. Finally in frustration I went into the forums and asked would other did in this case, politely, not obnoxious. Well!!
I got ebays attention they pulled my posts within twenty minutes, banned me from the site and totally removed my account, and the worst of it was the flakes that took me were still selling - took about a month before they were NRUed , wonder how many other they took in that time. Never managed to collect on that joke of an insurance policy from Lylods because I didn't do everything "just right". Stewed about it for a a while and thought what the hell reregistered same information that they banned me with and started again. Big mistake - well again got taken same story, ebay just ignored me, so I starting emailing every day again banned me. What I am saying is it appears that they are more concerned with image than the buyers, just want to keep pumping up the share price so the royal court can dumps billions in stock.
posted on January 11, 2003 07:46:34 AM new
toolman989......Your experience with Ebay is scary................is this what a Seller or a Buyer has to look forward to when they make a complaint????????????
Would it have helped you by going to .......Square Trade and asking them for assistance with your problem?.........Also, did Ebay Ever open your account again so that you could Buy again?...........Your posting has opened my mind to exactly what we deal with on Ebay, and I feel it is just
so unfair, and it reminds me of the saying.............Do for me, but don't expect me to do for you.
So unfair, I just would like to know what is going on with Ebay, don't they care when someone gets burnt from another party who is approved as being either a Seller or Buyer?
All they care about is an active Credit Card???? .....so they get there money
When a persons contact information is not correct and Ebay excepts it into there system something is not right.
What happened to ........inot........is happening everyday and nobody seems to care and you can't even get help from Ebay when you complain. This is so sad.
I have been a seller for a long time, and a few times I did buy, and it was a nightmare for me each time. It made me feel so nervous just worrying will my item come as promised, and will it be as described?.........
I know this is not going to happen, but Ebay needs to make this a safe place for a Buyer, because I feel we are loosing lots of Buyers because of there bad experiences with some, and I say some Sellers, because the majority of Sellers are GREAT!.......but you as a buyer only find out after your purchase........
posted on January 11, 2003 08:33:00 AM new
Seems like this is a big problem and Ebay doesn't want to hear about it. You are right
Tonimar, I was going along happily (naively) selling, and not until I was on the
receiving end....did I realize what a horrible experience ebay could be. I had no idea! My
latest disaster...bought a Christmas gift on Dec. 12 from an American seller in France.
Asked her if she would ship PRIORITY before I bid, she told me it would take 7-10
days. I say "OK" and pay the extra postage, ask her to please ship as soon as
possible as this was a Christmas gift (she stated in the description that she would ship
immediately due to the holidays). I was hoping it would arrive in time for Christmas,
but I was being realistic, knowing anything can happen. Waiting....waiting....NOTHING.
Hello? No communication...no NOTHING. I write and politely ask for "any word on my
item". She says it was shipped the week I paid for it and that was all she wrote. Still
waiting....I write again, can she provide a priority tracking number? Now she says she
made an "error". My item wasn't even shipped until the 23rd. of December, and she is
not "sure" if it was shipped Priority or economy ( 5-6 weeks)! She only has 1 or 2 items listed per
week, so I'm sure it's not because she was backlogged. She is just a lazy seller. I go out
of my way to provide service for my buyers, I know many here say they will not bend
over backwards for their customers, but if my buyers have been polite, paid promptly, don't pull any punches,
and are forthright with communication I feel it is the least I can do to leave them
wanting to shop again...for everyones sake. NOW THE STINKER! I have had a bad feeling about the French/ American
seller, so I just checked her feedback again and SURPRISE! She has made it "PRIVATE"
as of today! and has racked up 5 negs and 4 neutrals in the past month but continues to
sell! Well, I'm off to Paypal to request ANOTHER chargeback as I only have 30 days
from the purchase date to do so...and I'm off to pick up the classifieds as I had better
stop relying on ebay as my primary source of income.
posted on January 11, 2003 09:19:53 AM new
I have over 1000 feedbacks as a buyer on ebay and over 100 as a seller. I will say that in the past few months Ebay has really attracted LOSERS on both the buying and selling ends of the service.
I had NEVER had a problem with one single transaction on Ebay until about 3 months ago, then all of a sudden I had buyers who will not pay (mostly zero feedback folks) and sellers that have ripped me off - one to the tune of 250. For that particular auction I did this:
- Since I paid through paypal I filed a complaint through paypal. They were only able to recover part of my funds from the guy's account since he had spent everything I sent.
- Filed a notice with square trade - they couldn't contact the guy
- Filed a fraud complaint with ebay. This last one was rather complicated but I can see why it is so. In the end they said they would reimburse me part of my loss but I have not seen the check yet although it could still be in transit.
Ebay used to be a great venue but there are more and more people on BOTH sides taking advantage (probably due to the really bad economy). I wish Ebay would institute a verification for BOTH buyers and sellers - if you want to sell you MUST provide credit/bank account info which matches your sign up info and if you want to buy you must do the same.
Right now I am dealing with a zero feedback person who won an auction for a dollar amount above 300 and I clearly stated PAYPAL ONLY and they are claiming they can not figure out how to sign up for paypal, they entered the wrong credit card number, please let me pay via a different method like money order, etc. Scam coming? You bet!
I am sick and tired of it and ready to just stop buying on ebay altogether and open a web store where I don't have to deal with the non payers. You either enter a credit card and pay or you don't. ARE YOU LISTENING EBAY??????
posted on January 11, 2003 01:29:06 PM new
tonimar1
In answer to your question - believe me I tried every avenue open to me, was a total
experience in frustration. When I went back here is my feedback http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=toolman989
Notice NRUed but at least this time they didn't totally remove my account - but didn't post to the forums this time.
So like I said they do not care about buyers they are more concerned with press coverage
and don't want anything that in any way detracts from the image that they are a safe venue.
[ edited by toolman989 on Jan 11, 2003 01:29 PM ]
posted on January 11, 2003 04:35:15 PM new
>.bought a Christmas gift on Dec. 12 from >an American seller in France.
>Asked her if she would ship PRIORITY
Does the French postal system offer PRIORITY shipment from France to the US/Canada? or did you mean one of the private shipping services?
>can she provide a priority tracking number?
Tracking number? On an international shipment?
>Now she says she made an "error". My >item wasn't even shipped until the 23rd. >of December, and she is
>not "sure" if it was shipped Priority or >economy ( 5-6 weeks)! She only has 1 >or 2 items listed per
>week, so I'm sure it's not because she >was backlogged. She is just a lazy >seller.
Okay, she admits she screwed up. She's obviously not a big time seller and maybe she doesn't have an abundance of experience with international shipments, HOWEVER...
Making an international purchase less than 2 weeks prior to the date you absolutely must have the item when the date just happens to be *Christmas*, when the mails are particularly overburdened, is taking a bit of a risk, I think.
posted on January 11, 2003 07:53:00 PM new
As I stated, I was "hopeful" of it's arrival in time for *Christmas, but also realized it was
a long shot. You're right, it was a gamble, and I was aware of that.
I don't live in France, so I don't know exactly how one would ship something to me
from France via "Priority". That was how the seller referred to the quicker service, she
called it "Priority", not me. She was also the one who volunteered to forward a postal
"tracking number", I didn't ask for one.
I am well understanding of a simple mistake. I am not upset in her error in shipping my
item. I am simply stating that the overall service provided by this seller was careless.
She was lazy in her handling of her communication to me. I sell and ship between 30 -40
items every week. Someone bought something from me the Friday before Christmas.
She was a newbie and asked "PLEASE CAN YOU GET IT HERE BY CHRISTMAS?" I
said I would try if she could pay me by Paypal. She did, but not until late Saturday
night. I was MOVING my residence on Monday, Dec. 23rd. I had the walk through for
our new home at 8 am Monday morning, and our settlement was at 9 am. On my way
from the walk through, to the settlement appointment, I managed to get to the post
office to mail this customers package via USPS Priority mail. You know what? it arrived on
Christmas morning! I was shocked...And she was ecstatic! Am I wonderful? NO, what I
am is providing good service for a new customer, who may or may not look to ebay for
future purchases from not just me but other sellers as well, depending on her past
experiences. To everyone who does contribute their exceptional seller services, Thank
you very much for all of your effort!
posted on January 11, 2003 10:01:56 PM new
>I don't live in France, so I don't know exactly how one would ship something to me
>from France via "Priority". That was how the seller referred to the quicker
>>service, she called it "Priority", not me. She was also the one who volunteered to
> forward a postal "tracking number", I didn't ask for one.
Interesting. According to your first post, YOU asked for "Priority" mail service and YOU asked for "a tracking number". Which is it, you asked or she offered?
>I managed to get to the post office to mail this customers package via USPS Priority
> mail. You know what? it arrived on Christmas morning! I was shocked...
Even more interesting that your post office was delivering Priority mail on a holiday. Perhaps you meant "Express Mail", in which case the package was a day late.
You might want to try to keep you stories straight.
[ edited by KarenMx on Jan 11, 2003 10:03 PM ]
posted on January 12, 2003 07:35:57 AM new
Hi Karen Mx, Thanks for your effort to keep the postings here on this board as factual
as possible. I don't make up "stories" about events which have transpired during the
course of doing business here on ebay. As hard as it might be to believe these things
really happened...Thanks again for your concern. I hope though, as you take time to
perform this service you don't miss the point of the whole thread. Which is that ebay
cares more about the sellers (correct me, NOT the sellers, collecting sellers fees) than
they do about keeping customers buying here... for all of us who sell. OK, back to my
"story"... You asked "which is it?". Well, I did email her before I bid and asked her if
there was a faster mail service available than the economy $8.00 she had described in
the listing. She wrote back to me and said "Priority 7-10 days $15.00". She called it
priority, that's why I referred to it here as Priority. And that is why I bid. Also, after I
paid for the item, she said she would forward a "postal tracking number". I have no
idea what she meant by that. Maybe she mistakenly THOUGHT there was some kind of
tracking number. So yes, I asked her to forward the "postal tracking number" she had
referred to when she "forgot" when she mailed my package (yes, there was almost a
week in there when she couldn't tell me when she sent my Priority item). I asked for it,
hoping to be able to see when it was sent as the seller couldn't tell me herself. I
wondered why she couldn't just look this number up herself to tell me the date, which
is another reason I was growing increasingly suspicious.
Concerning my customer...I shipped her package USPS Priority mail, it cost $5.50.
When I shipped the package, I asked the clerk
how long it should take to get there. I really expected it to arrive on Thursday at the
earliest. He said "Thursday, but there will be delivery of some packages on Christmas
day". Yeah, right I thought. I emailed my customer later that day and told her there was
some hope that the package
could arrive by Christmas. She was appreciative, but not "counting on it".
You can imagine how surprised we both were when the item arrived on "Christmas
morning"
Here's the feedback she left for me :
"Praise : A++Speedy delivery, Even more beautiful than picture.Thank you very much!
Follow-up by ***** - A special thanks for the extra effort to deliver on Christmas
morning A+++++++++". Doncha just love nice customers? I do! Let me know if I can
clear up any others facts up for you. Thanks!
posted on January 12, 2003 07:40:26 AM newWhat do you think of ebay requiring a deposit before you can set up a sellers account?
Are you kidding?
I would gladly pay an additional 10 cent fee per auction if eBay would require a deposit from every bidder...then reimburse each seller that bidder stiffs.
posted on January 12, 2003 07:46:16 AM newI can't get past the "I am a buyer" window. It says "error 404". No matter how I try to get into "safety harbor" or "rules and safety" or whatever the #!@!* it's called...nothing!
Well, that's an interesting reaction to have.
Some HTML is broken and suddently it's an eBay conspiracy to aid scammers. Wow.
I went to report an invalid email address the other day and got the same "404" error. I shrugged my shoulders and made a note to try again in a few days.
posted on January 12, 2003 08:15:35 AM new
Well, if i am not on meds now...this would surely drive me to it .
Fluffy, just curious and sincere...have you ever been ripped off by a seller here on ebay? I really don't have an exact count, but I have bought atleast 50 things. I would say just out of those 50...3 have been scams,I paid and never received any merchandise and then that seller disapears. 10 items have been misrepresnted, and I don't mean mistakenly. I mean, arrived damaged/ repaired obviously, before delivery. On the other hand, I have sold over 1000 items. I have had only 1 customer not pay...and that person wrote to me and asked to be let out of the sale ( I am knocking on wood). I've had a few I had to be....tenacious? with...but they paid. I did not allude to any "conspiracy?" on ebays part.
I was shocked and completely frustrated with the ebay fraud investigation/ navigation process, if you can call it that. They sure don't make it easy! As I stated, I did'nt expect them to DO anything about it, but I did think they would keep track of it.
posted on January 12, 2003 08:45:51 AM new
Geez, there's a lot of nastiness here. Just for the record:
>>You can imagine how surprised we both were when the item arrived on "Christmas
morning" <<
My mother also received packages from the post office on Christmas morning.
When I went to file my fraud complaint with ebay I also got the 404 page error several times. Keep trying and also clear your cache on your computer as you may be bringing up that stored page now.
I think Ebay should require buyers to make a deposit - sort of like "fund an account" for auctions. If they don't have money in their auction account, they can not bid. I don't think Ebay should or can justify charging sellers more to pay their programmers to provide the software to make a system like that operate (they have Paypal now, they could tie it into Paypal - fund your Paypal account and have the ability to bid...) - right now the buyer is charged NADA for the ability to bid. Real auctions usually charge the bidder a price.
posted on January 12, 2003 04:04:13 PM newFluffy, just curious and sincere...have you ever been ripped off by a seller here on ebay?
A curious and sincere reply:
If you mean by "ripped off", never got the item I paid for and did not get my money back, no.
If you mean by "ripped off", did not get what I was clearly supposed to, or in the condition it was supposed to be, or with all the pieces it was supposed to have, yes.
I have bought a lot on eBay, mostly sterling flatware sets (usually > $1,000) with an eye towards breaking them up for resale. I'm not damaging my business by telling you that because that market is now saturated.
The SafeHarbor area clearly has some problems, but it has not always been thus and I'm sure it'll be fixed soon if it isn't already. I'm not sure, though, that your CD purchase will qualify for the Buyer Protection Program...doesn't it have to be $25 or more?
The last point I want to make is that eBay is a poor place for buying time-sensitive gifts. Most e-commerce sites are. What if your CD is shipped and you get it in time but it's the wrong CD?
I think that if you need something for a gift the following week the best bet is to search the b&m stores.
.